In many fields there is a need to determine information about the cavity of tubular structures, such as blood vessels or pipelines. This information can include the thickness of the walls, the maximum and minimum internal diameters, and the location of a device inserted into the cavity relative to the cavity.
In anatomy the cavities of such tubular organs (for example veins and arteries) are called lumens. A typical prior art solution for analyzing lumen geometry and navigating within them has been to use ultrasound. For example, in an ultrasound coronary investigation a full circle scan (2D) is used in order to estimate the lumen size of a blood vessel. To achieve the estimate requires a large amount of computational power and involves sophisticated image processing schemes.
The present invention proposes a simple method for determining lumen properties by analyzing signals from a device placed inside the lumen.
In summary, it is a main object of the present invention to provide a method for analyzing signals from a device inside a tubular cavity to determine properties of the cavity including the location of the device.
The calculating power required for the present invention is significantly less that that required for conventional image processing methods, generally two orders of magnitude less.
Still further objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the ensuing description and drawings.